TheRev

Can I have the Honey set please?

Ta

Dave

No, mine's one of the earlier ones with just the piezo pup. In your case, synthetic strings like the Obligatos won't be any use but the Helicore hybrids will still work. They have a steel rope core with dampening material wrapped round it to reduce the sustain so there'll be enough metal to generate a signal.

Over on the Talkbass EUB froum there's a lot of love for the Corelli 370M strings. I haven't tried them yet as my Aria doesn't get a lot of use since I bought my Eminence but they would seem to be ideal for your needs.

I have Helicore hybrids on my Aria and they produce a much more mellow DB like sound than pizz strings like Sprios. You could also try the Helicore orchestrals which are even more thumpy! The general rule of thumb is that EUBs have a much brighter response and more sustain than DB, so to get the same sort of tone from an EUB as from a DB, you have to go a step darker with the strings. i.e. if you want a pizzacato, jazz, spirocore sort of sound then you need to use hybrids or nylon strings to take away some of the sustain and top end of the Aria.

Pirastro's Obligatos are a great string getting close to the Db sound on EUB, but they are known for rolling under the fingers, which you say you want to avoid.

Dave

[quote name='RhysP' post='629510' date='Oct 18 2009, 03:04 PM']Bill Bruford.
Danny Carey.
Gavin Harrison.
Simon Phillips.
Jeff Pocaro.
David Francolini.
And a thousand others.

I love listening to great drummers - I'd far rather hear a drum solo than a bass solo.[/quote]


David Fracnolini - good call!!

I loved the stuff he did with Darkstar, especially[url="http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3a%6ffficial&client=firefox-a&q=youtube+dark+star&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=1kPcSpbMBo2y4QbL_M31Bg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBEQqwQwAA#q=youtube+darkstar+Graceidelica&emb=0&client=firefox-a"] Graceidelica[/url]. I love the bit at 17 seconds in where the drum intro pauses for a beat and then just thumps back in

Got a ticket for the Brum gig in November - very much looking forward to it.

I first encountered SA at a free festival in Bristol around the time of their first album. All I remember was lots of overdriven bass played by what looked like a massive set of dreadlocks and Skin diving into the crowd to have a word with a couple of NF types who were saying unpleasant things about her.

For a more uprighty tone you need to lean towards hybrid or orchestral strings or synthetic core.

Obligatos might work well, Velvet compas would work very well but at £350 a set, it's an expensive experiment.

[quote name='Duckyincarnate' post='613034' date='Sep 30 2009, 03:30 PM']I was thinking of going up to about £150.[/quote]


I'd go for the [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/david_gage_the_realist_kontrabass.htm"]Realist[/url].

UNLESS - you're playing with quite high stage volumes in which case the Realist may not be the best option as it can be more susceptible to feedback. If this is the case, you could do worse than spend £100 on a Bassmax and put the remaining £50 towards a nice preamp.

Might be worth having a look at the double bass forum over on Talkbass - they have a whole section on pickups which should point you in the right direction.

I haven't anything to sell, but the Realist is very good and very easy to install.

Even easier to install, (but maybe not as good?) is the K&K Bassmax - you shove it in the gap under the bridge wing, plug in the other end and away you go.

Ah, ok. go with pencil lines or little stickers then - they're cheap and removable!

Enjoy your eminence - I love mine to bits.


Dave

My eminence has side position markers (they're an optional extra), are you buying yours new?

I liked their earlier stuff, before Gary Stringer started using his 'distinctive style' on every song.

I used to be in a band with Jack Bessant's cousin. Not a lot of people know that.

This charming man - The Smiths.

Everyone bangs on about the genius of Johnny Marr (and rightly so) but Andy Rourke's bass in this track is jaw dropping. In isolation you'd never believe it was the same song. the main riff is almost jazz and the double stops in the bridge section - mmmmmmm. Lovely.

Is there a violin/cello shop anywhere near you? They usually have some sort of rental scheme running and should be able to sort you out with a rental bass. I hired one for £25 per month so it's pretty affordable.

If you want to buy your own, you could do a lot worse than [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_33_02.htm"]this[/url]. The bassist in my local jazz collective plays one and it sounds and plays fine. I'm sure it's not up there with an instrument costing £3k ( I'm by no means an expert in these matters) but the Thomann bass is very playable and it sounds like a double bass. You'll also have change from your £1000 for a proper set up and maybe even a nice set of strings.

The next step is to find a sympathetic teacher, or even just an experienced player to show you the correct basic left and right hand techniques so that you don't damage yourself and maybe show you a few standard jazz riffs.

From there, all you have to do is practice and then get out and play.

Easy.

Dave

Danny Thompson uses one when he goes on tour and can't take Victoria with him. He calls it Albert.....

Past - Free or Jeff Buckley
Present - Elbow or John Butler

But which will sound best on my Eminence EUB. I think the spiros may be too bright so I'm having a bash at the Oblis.

Obligatos or spiros......Obligatos or spiros?

Decisions, decisions.

There's still a fair difference between a 36" scale electric bass and a 41" scale 3/4 double bass - it's hardly going to to be a straight transition.

Ow Bis me babber?

The Brizzle chapter is growing again.....

Must.... resist.....

That's a really lovely looking bass.

Blimey, a SW bass bash! I never thought I'd see the day.

I'm up for it.

I can bring:
Eminence EUB
Aria Lite one EUB (could be an interesting point of reference for the Stagg EUB owners out there?)
Musicman Sterling
Markbass Little Mark II
2x Bill Fitzmaurice Omni 10.5s

If you have the space, don't need to practice quietly and don't mind lugging half a wardrobe around with you, then go straight for the best double bass you can afford (allowing spare cash for a set up, decent pickup and preamp). Yes, amplifying a double bass can be a pain due to the feedback issues and you'll never get the amped sound to faithfully reproduce the acoustic sound without spending an awful lot of money but the feeling of total immersion you get playing an organic, vibrating double bass is second to none which can never be achieved with an EUB, no matter how good it is.

What's your budget?

[quote name='tanuki' post='593910' date='Sep 9 2009, 02:48 PM']Thanks Rev, which ones did you see?

I did try and go to see Ste's MOU gig that year but it clashed with one of mine, (i think i had 7 with 4 different bacds that year..ulp) I saw some pics though and it looked good to me!

This glastonbury thing has been good for the vistics, allthough we have played Glastonbury for a few years now, we allways play on the smaller stages in the green fields etc, as the bands sound changed we found that we couldnt get a gig in 2009 as we were too heavy for the stages we had previously played (that and we left it way too late to apply)

No idea which stage yet tho.. im still going to try and get one in Trash City or Arcadia, both areas were really good this year and most of the bands play after dark and after the main stages so there are loads of people passing through there..[/quote]

The last one was a while ago - Emily Breeze and John E Vistic at the Louie. My girlfriend says she tried to chat you up at Renato's after the gig

How was the Junction last night? we were intending to go but I had to pick up a PA for the weekend/drop posters off etc. Hve the cleaned the place up?

Yep, nothing sticky about them.

They're designed from the ground up as 'portable double basses' for touring and the like so they've kept them as double bassy as possible. Playability & feel is close to the real thing and the amplified sound is pretty much exactly what you'd get from a decent ply bass with a decent pickup. They were the only ones that have consistently good things said about them on the Talkbass forums - everything else seems to be either a bit hit and miss playibility-wise or needed modification to make it sound decent (Yamaha; I'm looking at you....).

My 2p....

Athough I agree in principle with the 'go straight to the DB' camp, there are a few things to consider.

I bought an Aria EUB acouple of years ago, pretty much on a whim and completely fell in love with all things DB. It changed my attitude and playing style (and got me so many gigs) that I decided that I was going to move on to a proper bass ASAP. However, Once I'd got the cash together and done a bit more research, I chose to stick with the EUB (albeit, a much better quality one than my Aria). My reasons were down to portability and amplification; I live in a small flat up 4 flights of stairs, I have a number of basses and amps and my girlfriend has a lot of shoes and handbags - finding space for a 3/4 size DB as a real issue. Secondly, all of my gigs are amplified and the amount of experimentation that people go through to find the right pickup made it seem logical to go for something that was designed to be amplified in the first place.

The EUB I bought is an Eminence, which is very close in feel to a DB and the amplified sound is pretty close too, so for me, EUB is a better option than DB.
However, once I can move to a bigger place, or Mrs Rev moves out and takes her shoes and bags with her, I'll be straight on the hunt for a real DB..... ^_^ Thomann do some very nice basses (Thomman badged Strunals I think) for about £800. Spend another £200 or so on setup and strings and you'll have a very nice bass for reasonable money.